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Investec Switzerland. The SMI finished this Easter week 1.10% lower, tracking losses on global equity markets (-0.71%) following the terrorist attacks in Brussels on Wednesday. Stock markets lost momentum after the attacks as investors failed to find fresh catalysts to keep the five-week long equity rally going. Zaventem airport Brussels – © Bombaert | Dreamstime.com Commodity prices also fell this week and the US dollar strengthened on the back of higher US oil...

Following yesterday's dollar spike which topped the longest rally in the greenback in one month, the prevailing trade overnight has been more of the same, and in the last session of this holiday shortened week we have seen the USD rise for the fifth consecutive day on concerns the suddenly hawkish Fed (at least as long as the S&P is above 2000) may hike sooner than expected, which in turn has pressured WTI below $39 earlier in the session, and leading to weakness across virtually all...

Investec Switzerland. Credit Suisse Group AG Chief Executive Officer Tidjane Thiam dropped a bombshell on investors: Caught off guard by a buildup of illiquid trading positions, the CEO said the bank will probably post a second straight quarterly loss as it unwinds the trades and deepens cuts at that business. © Hai Huy Ton That | Dreamstime.com Thiam, less than two months after the bank disclosed losses on the positions that led to the biggest trading revenue drop among...

Tribune de Genève. According to the Swiss paper, Tribune de Genève, Richemont, the group which owns the Cartier and Piaget brands could eliminate 170 positions at Cartier and around 120 at Piaget and Vacheron Constantin. Piaget, part of the Richemont group – © Abdul Sami Haqqani | Dreamstime.com 50 posts at Vacheron Constantin in the vallée de Joux in Vaud and 35 at Plan-les-Ouates in Geneva are set to go. At Piaget 22 positions at Plan-les-Ouates in Geneva are at risk along with a further...

Investec Switzerland. Swiss watch exports fell for an eighth consecutive month as shipments to Hong Kong extended a one-year rut caused by rich Chinese traveling to cheaper locations to buy expensive timepieces. Shipments slid 3.3 percent to 1.65 billion Swiss francs ($1.7 billion) in February, or by 7.9 percent adjusted for the number of working days in the month, according to data from Switzerland’s customs office. Exports to Hong Kong fell 25 percent, declining for a...

Gold Silver Ratio Says It’s Time to Buy Silver, Sell Gold Silver remains undervalued versus gold and the gold silver ratio suggests “selling the former” and “buying the latter” according to a Bloomberg article published today. “When the head of one of the world’s biggest silver streaming companies says he’s more bullish on his metal than gold, don’t dismiss him just for talking his own book. This chart suggests Silver Wheaton Corp. Chief Executive Officer Randy Smallwood may be right....

Submitted by Ronan Manly of Bullionstar Blogs Following on from last month in which BullionStar’s Koos Jansen broke the news that Venezuela had sent almost 36 tonnes of its gold reserves to Switzerland at the beginning of the year, “Venezuela Exported 36t Of Its Official Gold Reserves To Switzerland In January“, there have now been further interesting developments in this ongoing saga. It has now come to light that on Tuesday 8 March, the Banco Central de Venezuela (BCV) sent another...

Investec Switzerland. The SMI is set to finish lower this week (-1.83%), underperforming the MSCI World (+1.03% ) as US stocks gained after the Federal Reserve scaled back expectations for the path of interest-rate increases on Wednesday. © Katsiaryna Pakhomava | Dreamstime.com Stocks around the world gained mid-week after Yellen and the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) left rates on hold and indicated that fewer rate rises will occur this year due to sluggish global...

Trump and Sanders have whipped up a lot of popular support by opposing “free trade” agreements. But it’s not just politics and populism … mainstream experts are starting to reconsider their blind adherence to the dogma that more globalization and bigger free trade agreement are always good. UC Berkeley Economics professor Robert Reich – Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Labor – wrote last month: Suppose that by enacting a particular law we’d...

Investec Switzerland. The SMI is set to finish flat this week (-0.12%), outperforming global equity market (MSCI World -0.68% ) with European stocks losing value after the long awaited ECB policy meeting. Stock markets around the world were mixed with risk appetite increasing ahead of Thursday’s European Central Bank (ECB) policy meeting and falling thereafter. The ECB lowered all its main interest rates and expanded its quantitative-easing purchase plan quantity (by €20...